The Diablo Mountain Range: Stuff the Serpentine Asbestos Rock into its hell hole
As the peloton rolls along the windswept valley through the Devils Den and then climbs up the Diablo Mountain Range towards the vineyards in Paso Robles, take a moment to consider what lurks beneath the bucolic and placid surface.
The appropriately named Diablo Mountains are notorious for harboring one of the world’s nastiest infestations of asbestos. Asbestos is a virtually indestructible mineral with heat-resistant properties that was mined from these mountains from the 1950s through the 1988. The Diablo Range was a leading producer of Chrysotile asbestos, a persistent and insidious carcinogen.
Should the racers and fans be alarmed? As long as the “wicked white powder” remains locked in the ground, not necessarily. Although there is no safe exposure threshold below which the risk of getting cancer is zero, asbestos fibers and dust are toxic only when they are respirable, that is, when they are pulverized and released into the breathable air space.
The deadliest concentration of asbestos is in the hills west of the town of Coalinga, which is about 20 miles north of the steepest and highest climb of Stage 5 (the 95 mile marker). There are three huge open pit mines in the region: The Atlas Mine (1967-1979), The Johns Manville/Coalinga Asbestos mine (1957-1977), and the Union Carbide Mine (1963-1988).
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The mines have closed, but the dangers remain. Two of the mines, plus a 107 acre area surrounding the processing mill in the city of Coalinga, have been designated by the EPA as Superfund clean up sites.
Last May, the Bureau of Land Management closed a 48 square mile area of the Diablo Mountain Range known as the Clear Creek Recreation Area which encompasses the old Atlas Mine north of Coalinga. The area was closed to the public indefinitely when a three year study by the EPA revealed that dangerous levels of asbestos dust were being stirred up by motorcycles and other off-road vehicles.
The area, which has over 800 miles of trails, is rated as one of the 10 best off-road areas in the nation by motorcycle magazines. The EPA testing revealed dangerous levels of chrysotile asbestos (“white asbestos,” which is extracted from serpentine ore). The BLM has deemed that any human activity that stirs up dust —even camping and hiking—is potentially dangerous, especially to children, and has been outlawed until the BLM develops a new plan for the area.
Asbestos fibers, when inhaled, can cause inflammation of the tiny air ways in the lungs. The latency period between exposure and the development of mesothelioma or lung cancer is usually between 15 and 45 years. About 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year, about a third of whom were exposed while serving their country in the US Navy or working in Naval Shipyards. The average survival for mesothelioma patients is between 9 and 19 months, depending on the course of treatment.
“Asbestos should stay where it belongs -- in Hell,” said Floyd Landis, whose teammate Jon Chodroff’s grandfather recently passed away from mesothelioma. “And the profiteers who opened up Pandora’s Box and unleashed this scourge on the land should be forced to clean up their mess and account for their crimes.”
The Law Office of Roger G. Worthington, PC, of San Pedro, California, has represented mesothelioma and asbestos-cancer patients since 1990. For more information about the dangers of asbestos, the diagnosis and treatment of asbestos related diseases, the history of corporate knowledge of the dangers of asbestos, as well as the legal rights of victims, please contact Roger Worthington, Esq. at 800.831.9399.
February 19, 2009